Ivy Rowe's Fair And Tender Ladies

The book "Fair and Tender Ladies" is a manifesto of women's writing and personal look at the great history of literature. The author creates an epistolary novel in which offers to read the letters of women, who began writing at the age of ten and continued to write until her old age. At the beginning of the book we meet the main character as a little girl who describes her world with a simple thought and naive language with a lot of errors and dialect. The audience realizes that this girl is an active carrier of Appalachian culture, and the Appalachian consciousness. Subsequently, the girl grows up and begins her journey to different cities of the South, but never feels calm at those places, and so at the end of her life, she returns to the

place of her childhood. Thus, the circle closes and the heroine pays tribute to her native land. All her letters were addressed to the people who were closest to her, so the reader does not arise the idea that the heroine can be cunning or a hypocrite. Throughout the events of her life, she describes simply and in detail, as she is storytelling as if she is in confession. Taking into account that the heroine systematically professes her life, thoughts, and actions of this book you can take as a confession, because we have no letters that she receives in return. However, each sheet, you can take as a separate story because they not only describe her adventures and experiences, but also the dialogues and the staging that occurs with people who surround her. Thus, we have a story of a woman; she tells her perception of reality exclusively, so automatically you can expect a romanticizing and myth-making spaces and activities that she describes. As Ivy Rowe experienced an extremely strong bond with her native land, these feelings and attitudes toward her native land occur in her letters. That is why we can talk about this book, as the personal processing of the Appalachian folk, which were lived by a woman who had the courage to position herself as the sole author, the narrator of her life.
You should start with the fact that the book is named "Fair and Tender Ladies", which refers to the extremely popular and well-known songs, which rehash a large number of outstanding singers.

The author cuts the original name that deprives its old form "ye". The song tells of a woman who is going through unhappy love and therefore compares herself to a sparrow, which can fly from a loved one or to fly to a loved one. Ivy Rowe writes letters to her sisters and friends, describes the lives of other women (sisters, daughters), so the phrase "fair and tender ladies" can be seen as a common name, an appeal to all women of the Appalachian Mountains. Also, as the name suggests that this novel is not a personal history and collective history of women. However, it should be said that although Ivy Rowe was experiencing several loves in her life, it is not necessary to associate her to a "sparrow" with the loss and the pain of unrequited love. Her main love throughout the novel is the land on which she grew. That is why she first said "I'd fly away / to my false true lover / and when he'd speak / I would deny” (Folklore), the novel that affects her travel to different cities, until it "I'll sit right down / in my grief and sorrow, / and let my troubles / pass me by." (Folklore) and ends her life in his hometown. Also, her last letter, written to a dead friend, tells the story of a close death of Ivy Rowe, so she returns to her childhood memories too. Such a conclusion reminiscent of the structure of a fairy tale in which the hero returns home after wandering. At home, all remains as if nothing had happened, but the hero has changed, and therefore chooses to live happily ever after in the illusions, or get acquainted with the new realities of his old

world.
We learn from Ivy Rowe's letters that throughout her life she had heard a large number of oral histories from people who surrounded her. Some of these stories are candid folk sound, while others talked about their experiences. However, this experience has occurred against the backdrop of the Appalachian region, resulting in a large number of comparisons, expressions, and positions of world perception that are inherent media in such a culture. Although the novel tells of a woman who put up all her life with the losses, deaths and complications included in the language of the folk tradition of her native region of perception, this book gives an incredible mythological, romantic sound. One of the sources that told her stories were Gaynelle and Virgie Cline (who lived on the mountain top and therefore had a sharply different position and manner of perception of social life, and such eternal themes as death and birth). Also, Ivy Rowe, in her letters cites a large number of songs, ballads, and poetry, with which she is trying to shape and tone her life, but we understand that they are a form of self-perception, which smoothly transitions into the mythological perception of the world. Later, when Ivy Rowe is a grown-up- woman, she realizes that all of these situations and the appeal of the songs were only a desperate attempt not to recognize or not to see the reality, and to be able to live in such a romantic, mythological space.
In one of Lee Smith's, the author's, interviews she said: "The things that the Appalachian South - and I, as a writer - do share with the Deep South are: a strong sense of place, though my mountains are certainly different from those cotton fields; the importance of religion, family, and the past;. and an important tradition of storytelling " (McCorkle). All these features we can find in the novel; in fact, Ivy Rowe continues the tradition of telling stories, as she is a collector of women's stories. Her journey in the South, which she completed by a return home completely depict a sense of belonging to the mountains and the place of birth. During the deployment of the novel, we can follow: "three distinct ways in which to respond to place of origin: 1) acceptance without questioning, 2) total rejection and shame, and 3) an initial struggle against place of origin followed by a complete embracing of all that it encompasses, both good and bad" (Ogle, 104).
Thus, we can take this novel not only as a personal story of a woman, but also as a study, about depending on the location and how place shapes and defines our vision and consciousness. Throughout her life, Ivy Rowe has different concerns to the mountains, but with every round of self-consciousness, she is increasing her presence in the mountains and understanding of their soul, recognition of her roots and connection with this culture. However, this effect is not only self-reflection of Ivy Rowe, but also descriptions of the life fate of other women. So, heroine Ethel never leaves the mountains and does not understand why people can go far. Though she will move to the city, her life, rituals and understanding of the place where she belongs totally merge with those traditions, which she watched from her ancestors. Another sister is completely different in her way of existence: "Do not you ever, Beulah said, I mean ever Ivy Rowe, call old Granny over here with all her crazy old ideas. I won’t have it. I will not. [...] And I will not have that for my boys, she said, or for me and Curtis [...]. We will have more. Beulah set her jaw when she said more "(Smith, 130).
Thus, the author and Ivy Rowe investigate a woman who decisively breaks with the past roots and place of birth. However, Ivy Rowe experienced a very different experience, which at first rejected her from home, then forced her to miss those places, and the culmination of the book was when she realized that the mountains are her trap from which she will never leave.